


Masquerade

by Heavenly_Pearl



Series: Dream Lovers [23]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Manga), Sailor Moon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-04
Updated: 2012-04-04
Packaged: 2017-11-03 01:29:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/375564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heavenly_Pearl/pseuds/Heavenly_Pearl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A masquerade ball is held in honor of Princess Lady Serenity's debut into adult society.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Masquerade

**Author's Note:**

> DISCLAIMER: "Sailor Moon" is the property of Takeuchi Naoko.
> 
> Written for the sm_monthly community at Livejournal, Theme - Ballroom.

Looking at her reflection in her vanity mirror, Princess Lady Serenity sighed.

Tonight, the palace was holding a special masquerade ball in honor of her debut into adult society. Hundreds of available young men from all over the world had come to Crystal Tokyo in hopes of becoming her suitor, yet Serenity could not bring herself to be excited about the prospect, knowing that the one man she truly wanted to see would not likely be there. After all, over a thousand years had passed since they had last seen each other, and he had probably forgotten all about her and the promise he had made to her all those years ago.

"Why the long face, Your Highness?" her guardian cat Diana, who had transformed into her human form to help Serenity dress, asked as she curled her mistress's long, cotton-candy pink hair with a curling iron. "Today should be a happy day for you. You've been looking forward to your coming-out ball since you were a little girl."

Reaching for a nearby tube of lipstick, Serenity shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know," she lied, painting her lips a deep red that almost matched her eyes. "I guess now that it's finally time, it doesn't seem as exciting as I thought it would. Anyway, how does this color look on me? Do you think it's a bit much?"

"Maybe a little."

"I think so, too." Serenity blotted the lipstick off with a tissue, then selected another shade. "That's better," she said, pressing her lips after putting on the new color.

By that time, Diana had finished styling Serenity's hair into a slightly more intricate version of her normal odango. Each rabbit-eared-shaped odango had a braid wrapped around its base, while the hair that hung loose fell down in soft waves at her sides. To complete the look, she wore a pearl circlet on the top of her head, a diamond crescent moon charm perfectly covering the golden sigil that signified her Lunarian heritage.

Diana smiled, pleased by her work. "You look beautiful, Your Highness. Every man at tonight's ball will be dying to dance with you."

"Thanks, Diana," Serenity said unenthusiastically, standing up and taking off her robe so Diana could help her into her dress.

If there was one thing about the ball she was excited about, it was her gown, designed especially for her by one of the top designers in Crystal Tokyo. Since it was a masquerade, Serenity was appropriately going as the Moon Goddess, wearing a form-fitting white satin gown with a pearl-trimmed bodice and flowing sheer sleeves that almost looked like wings if she held her arms in the right position. Her hand-held mask, which was designed to match, was also encrusted with pearls and trimmed with gold sequins.

Diana gasped in awe as Serenity admired her reflection in the mirror, and even Serenity smiled for the first time that evening, pleased with the effect.

"Thank you, Diana," she said again, this time with more sincerity in her voice.

Diana, who was already dressed in her cat princess costume, smiled, then began shooing Serenity toward the door. "Now, come on, come on, the ball is about to start," she said, practically pushing Serenity out into the hall. "The guest of honor cannot be late for her own party."

"Okay, I'm going, I'm going. You don't have to be so pushy about it," Serenity laughed.

 _Maybe this ball won't be so bad after all_ , she thought as Diana led her to the stairway entrance to the ballroom. Even if he wasn't able to be able to make it, there would be plenty of other men there, all "dying to dance" with her, as Diana had put it. And who knew? Maybe even one of them could make her forget all about a certain silver-haired priest of Elysion, although Serenity highly doubted it.

Determined to have a good time, Serenity forced herself to smile as she and Diana met up with her father - who looked as dashing as always dressed up as Tuxedo Kamen - at the top of the staircase leading down to the ballroom. Already, the room was full almost to capacity, and Serenity saw that a majority of the guests were young men.

"Are you nervous?" her father asked her, offering his arm to her as Diana excused herself to announce them. "You know, if you don't feel like you are ready to make your debut, we can always postpone for another twenty, thirty years or so. It would not be a problem at all."

Serenity giggled and rolled her eyes. If her father had it his way, she would stay his sweet and innocent Small Lady for the rest of his life. "Oh, Papa, I'm sixteen years old. It's time for me to make my proper debut. I've been waiting for this night since I was a little girl."

"I know, I know," he sighed. "But still…"

Before he could complete his thought, however, the orchestra stopped playing and the whole room went silent as the guests formed a large circle around the bottom of the stairs. In the center of that circle stood Diana, but everybody's eyes were lifted upwards to the top of the stairs, and Serenity felt a few butterflies flutter in her stomach as she realized it was time.

"Ladies and gentleman," Diana said, "I present to you our crown princess, Lady Serenity, and her father, His Majesty, King Endymion."

 _Please don't let me trip, oh, please don't let me trip_ , Serenity prayed as she tightly gripped her father's arm and they made their way down the stairs.

As they had rehearsed over a thousand times in preparation for that night, her father led Serenity to the center of the circle where Diana had stood previously and bowed deeply to her, to which Serenity lowered into a deep curtsy in response. It was then that the orchestra started up again, and Serenity and the king began the traditional father-daughter dance as the guests looked on, murmuring softly among themselves about Serenity's great beauty.

To her relief, Serenity did not make a single misstep throughout the entire foxtrot with her father, and, as Diana predicted, she soon had plenty of offers from the other men to dance. Wanting to be a gracious host, she danced with anybody who asked, but couldn't stop herself from looking for the one man she truly wanted to be her partner on the dance floor.

The fact that almost everyone was wearing elaborate masks did not make the search any easier. Her heart beat a little faster whenever a silver-haired man approached her, but every time she was disappointed when she failed to see his golden eyes staring out at her from behind the man's mask. After a couple of hours passed by with no luck, Serenity gave up hope of seeing him that night and tried to focus instead on having a good time, which was easier said than done.

It wasn't as if she didn't like any of her dance partners. A few of them were quite charming, and had Serenity not already had a certain man on her mind all night long, she probably wouldn't have minded getting to know them better, but even when she tried not to think about him, her heart just wasn't into it.

As the night neared to an end, Serenity sighed, realizing that she had not found one man she wanted to be her partner in the closing dance. The last dance of the coming-out ball was traditionally reserved for the debutante and her suitor of choice. Knowing that she had to pick somebody, anybody, Serenity decided to ask a silver-haired man standing a few feet away from her, thinking that even if she couldn't dance with Helios, she could at least pretend the guy was him.

"Excuse me, sir, but may I have this dance?" Serenity asked.

The man, who she didn't remember dancing with before, smiled and nodded, offering his arm as again the guests formed a circle around them and the orchestra began playing a romantic waltz.

Though Serenity couldn't see the color of his eyes due to the way his mask was made, she was amazed by how much her dance partner resembled Priest Helios. It made it very easy to imagine that she was really in Helios' arms again, and, in fact, as they waltzed together in the spotlight, she momentarily forgot that she was dancing with a total stranger, letting herself fully believe the fantasy she saw in her mind.

But, like most good fantasies, it eventually had to end, and Serenity parted reluctantly from the mystery man when the orchestra finished playing their song. "Thank you for the dance," she said to the man as they bowed to the applauding crowd. "You were a wonderful dancer."

"It was my pleasure, my maiden," the man replied with a smile, causing Serenity to stop mid-curtsy.

It couldn't be him. He hadn't come to the ball. She had spent the entire night looking for him, yet…

Turning the man toward her, Serenity reached up with shaking hands for his mask and gasped.

Golden eyes.

He had kept his promise after all.


End file.
